Apparatus for processing surfaces of cylindrical articles and the like



Oct. 14, 1952 E. J. ANDERSON 2,613,631

APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING SURFACES OF CYLINDRICAL ARTICLES AND'THE LIKE 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Fil ed Dec. 15. 1950 INVENTOR EUGENE J. ANDERSON WW MWATTORNEY Oct. 14, 1952 E. J. ANDERSON APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING SURFACES0F CYLINDRICAL ARTICLES AND THE LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 15.1950 VII/Ill/l/l/l h I I I I I l I I ll u I III/IIIIIIIIIJ IIIIIIIJEII lV INVENTOR" EUGENE J. 'ANDER so N BY W ATTORNEY Oct. 14, 1952 E. J.ANDERSON 2,613,631

APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING SURFACES 0F CYLINDRICAL.

4 Sheets-Sheet 3 ARTICLES AND THE LIKE 15, 1950 Filed Dec.

EUGENE I ANDERSON BY @444 KM ATTORNEY Oct. 14, 1952 E. J. ANDERSON v2,613,631

APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING SURFACES 0F CYLINDRICAL ARTICLES AND THE LIKEFiled Dec. 15. 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I I m 62 l E I H w VH I! H! I as i32- 34 32 32 36 \k 36 3 O 50 E 62*, 1'

60 0 Huh. ml].

' I I (r; 42-1-1 'HH L hhh l INVENTOR EUGENE J. ANDERSON ATTORNEYPatented Oct. 14, 1952 APPARATUSFOR, PROCESSINGSURFACES \OF CYLINDRICALARTICLES AND THE I Eugene J. Anderson, New orleans La assignor to Rheem;Manufacturing Company, Richmond, alif.,,a corporation of California.

' Application December 15, 19.50;.Serial No. 201.033

' cr.'11's s)' '1 IClaiins.

This invention: relates-to anapparatusfor proc, essing the surfaces ,of,cylindrical articles and the like, particularly in conjunction withconveyor line handling. systems.

I will; describe my inventionin its applicatio to. the'processing ofcontainers and primarily with respect to the finishing and/or coating ofperipheral surfaces of cylindrical steel drums, pails and the like. Thismode of description will most. readily lend the invention to aclearunderstanding and the. many other objects whichmay be' similarlyprocessed .will be immediately apparent By my invention, containerswhich are in. general motion along a conveyor system may be readilylifted from the conveyornand engage withapparatus which rotates thecontainers about. their axis fora time intervalduring which processingdevices mountedadjacent. the periphery of the containers performprocessing operations.

:It is a: primary object of my invention to provide an apparatusforr'e'adily processingthe surfacesof cylindrical objects. 1

a It is a further object of my invention to provide. means for readilyremoving cylindrical objects from a conveyor system andto cause them to;be rotated about their longitudinal axis. f0.r, processing operationsuponrthe.peripheral. sun-1' faces of the objects.

It is a. further object of. my invention:1to..:pros vide means forreadily,coatingathempper and lower chimes of steel drums and applyingaxeoatin of-wax to the beads: ofsuch-drums,

' The further objects and thegentirey-scope ofgmy invention will befurther.- apparent;fromlthedols lowing pdetailed description :and'; fromthe appended claims. It willibe understoodxthat the detailed-descriptionis intendedxonly'forzpurposes or illustration and is not intended 'tolimit-the scope of my invention. l

- This application is related'to the"copending application of Stanley S.Johns; etal; Serial No. 1871572; filed September 29, 1950 v A completeunderstanding of my invention may be had-with-reference to theaccompanying drawings inconnection with the written description.

In the drawings: i

Figure 1 is "afront view of to the invention; V ""lii-gu're 2 is aplan-viewin partial section of the apparatus of Figural Figure 3 isaview in-partial sec-tion ofa cam mechanism of my invention;

Figure i isa side view of the apparatus of: Figureranw apparatusaccording Figure 5 is a sectional view of a rotatable head which forms apart of my invention.

The g'eneralarrangement of my invention may be understood with referenceto Figure 1. In this figure the containers are. illustrated as steeldrums designated by the reference numeral 40. As previously mentioned,many other types of objects may be processed by my invention, .but. forcon.- venience drums will beillustrated and discussed. An infeed roll:conveyor section designatedlgenerally as-I2 ,isprovided uponwhich drums.to be processed are, moved. to the. left as. view-edin Figure. 1.Eachdrumis moved to a centrallposition upon a plate I4 .and when in thisposition the drum is-raised from the .plate by means of acam operatedlifting unit designated generally as, .16. When the drum has beenraised,apredetermined distance, the upper endof the. drumbecomes en.- gagedwith a rotatable head indicatedgenerally as l8,--and after the drum isin engagement with the head l8, this headis rotatedby means of. a motorunit indicated generally at 20. Due. to a frictional engagement betweenthe head [8' and thedrum 10, the latter. will be revolved; at whichtime-a plurality of paint and/or wax spraying devices indicat'ed as 2!,will be placed in opera-I tion to spray paint and/or wax on the chimesandbeads of the drum. These processing devices are not shown in Figure1, but will be fully described in connection with other figuresv in. thedrawing.

After the described processing operationv has been completed the camoperated lifting unit [6 will be operated to return thedrum Hlto theplate M, at which time the operator may slide the drum to .theleft(Figure 1), until it engages and, is re,- moved by a belt conveyorindicated generally as 22.

I will now describe my invention in greater detail, beginning with acomplete description of the plate [4 and cam operated lifting device l6.

. Referring first to Figure 2, this is a plan view of the plate. l4.This'plate may be supported at'a convenient height by means of. four.upstanding L-shaped leg members 24. The plate. is provided with fourrectangular apertures 26 which are located on the arc of a circle havinga center point indicated as 28 which is directly beneath the cen- 'terof the previously mentioned rotatable head member l8.

Beneath the plate It there is locateda circular platform 30 upon whichare mountedfour rollers 32, each having a raised bead 34 at the inneredge thereof. These rollers are supported with their axes horizontal,by-means of supporting posts 36 which extend upwardly from the circularplatform 30. Referring to Figure 2, it will be observed that the rollers32 are positioned in alignment with the rectangular apertures 26 inplate I4. Accordingly, if the platform 30 is moved in a verticaldirection, the rollers 32 will move through the apertures 26 and the topof the rollers will extend a considerable distance above the plate I4.This position is illustrated in Figure 3.

From the structure as thus far described, it will be apparent that if adrum ispositioned on the plate I4 with its vertical axis aligned withthe axis of the rotatable head I8 andthe previously mentioned centerpoint 28, the raising of'the platform 30 will result in the drum beingsupportedupon the rollers 32, with the roller flanges 34 "suitablemeans.

Referring primarily to Figure 5, the rotatable head I8 is comprised of ahub 98 in which the 7 shaft 86 is secured by the screw threads 92 andriding within the bottom chime of the. drum. This condition is fullyillustrated in Figure v3.

Since the rollers 32 are free to revolve about their axes, the drum IIImay be freely rotated about its axis.

To properly'locate the drum upon the plate I4 before raising the rollers32, there are provided two studs 38 and 40 extending upwardly from theplate I4. These studs may be observed in Figures 2 and 3.

Referring primarily to Figure 3, the platform 30 is arranged to beelevated by means of a cam follower 42 which cooperates with a raisingcam 44. The cam follower 42 is rotatably mounted on a yoke 46 and theyoke is connected to the platform 30 by means of a shaft 48. The shaft48 is mounted for reciprocating motion in a bearing 50, which issupported by three fixed support arms 52, 54 and 55. The arms 52 and 54'extend outwardly diagonally to the forward pair of upstanding supportmembers 24 and the arm 56 extends rearwardly and is clamped about atubular column 58. The column 58 is fixedly attached to the framework,which supports the plate I4 and extends upwardly to also support theunit comprising rotatable head I8 and its driving motor 20.

The platform 30 may be prevented from rotating about the shaft 48 bymeans of a downwardly extending guide rod 60 mounted in the platform 38.A suitable bearing block 62 is mounted upon the support 56 to slidablyreceive the guide rod 60. The elevating cam 44 is fixedly mounted upon arotatable shaft 64, which extends in a horizonal direction betweenbearings 86 and 68 mounted on the framework of thetable structure whichsupports plate I4. The shaft 64 is arranged to be rotated by means of agear-motor unit 70 through a chain I2, which chain engages a sprocket I4on the motor unit I0 and a sprocket I6 which is fixedly mounted on theshaft 64. The shaft 84 also carries control cams which will be describedin detail below. The motor I0 may be equipped with a conventional typeof brake to prevent overrunning if it is stopped. I

The elevating cam 44 is circular over most of its periphery, but is cutaway in one sector to provide a position in which the platform 38 may bein its lowermost or unoperated position. The drawings illustrate thepreferred manner of shaping the cam 44 for efiicient operation. As bestshown in Figure 3, the cam proceeds from an innermost radius 18 to itsfull radius at either side of a fairly wide slope portion 80. Byavoiding too sharp a rise, the power required on shaft 64 to raise theplatform 30 is thus reduced. I I

Before proceeding with a description of control apparatus, the rotatablehead I8 and motor drive will be more fully described As previously aset'screw 94. A flange member 96 is attached to 'the'hub' 90 as bywelding and a plurality of ,tween the flange 96 and the disc I II] inthe manner shown in Figure 5. The disc I III is provided with adepending edge IIS which extends a sufficient distance below the lowersurface of :disc 8' to permit the installation of a second gasket I I8of a yieldable material, such as rubber. This gasket may be affixed tothe lower surface of disc III] by any suitable cement. The collar I00also extends a short distance below the lower surface of disc III] toform an inner shoulder against which the edge of a central aperture inthe'gasket I I8 may rest.

As best shown in Figure 5, when a drum I0 is raised into engagement withthe head I8, the gasket I I8 will frictionally engage the top surface ofthe drum and cause the latter to rotate with the head I8. It will, ofcourse, be understood that the exact dimensions and othercharacteristics of the head I8 may be modified to accommodate anyvariety of container. However, in any instance, an arrangement ofgaskets of yieldable material will reduce the shock of engagementbetween the container and the head and will also take into account anyslight misalignments between the axis of rotation of the head I8 and thelongitudinal axis of the container.

Suitable ball-type thrust bearings I28 and I22 may be provided, if.desired, to take up the thrust and/or sidewise loading on the shaft 86.

The processing devices ,2I may be mounted in any convenient fashion tobe in the proper position when the drum is raised. As best shown inFigure 4, a vertical mounting shaft I24 may be provided, extendingsubstantially parallel to the column 58. Each processing device .maythen be movably mounted on this shaft, as by set screws. The jointbetween the shaft I24 is preferably of a universal type, so that a paintspray or the like can be pointed in any direction. It will also beapparent that the inside surface of the chimes of the container may becoated. This may be accomplished by positioning an upper spray unit tooperate between the disc IIO (Figure 5) and the chime, and at the bottoma spray may be mounted upon the platform 30 and project through anopening in the plate I4.

In the processing of steel drums, it is usually the custom to paint theupper and lower chimes, and to apply wax to the beads. A coating ofwaxon the beads decreases the wear thereon in subsequent handlingoperations.

The operation of the apparatus will now be described. Assuming the cam44 to be in such position that the platform 30 is in its lowermostposition, the operator will first move a drum onto the plate I4 andposition it against the locating studs 38 and 40. With the drum in thisposition, the operator may then close a starting switch (not shown)which will complete a circuit to the motor unit I0. When this circuit iscompleted, the motor unit will start and the shaft 64 will rotate. Afterthe cam 44 has rotated a suflicient distance to cause the cam follower44 to ride upon the outermost portion of the cam, a control cam I24 willoperate a limit switch I26 to complete a circuit to the motor unit 20,which drives the head I8. Accordingly, since the head I8 is now engagedwith the drum ID, the latter will be rotated about its vertical axis.The limit switch I26 may also be employed to complete a circuit tosolenoids (not shown) which place the processing devices in operation.After the shaft 64 has been rotated to a point where the cam follower 44is about to again move into the cut-way portion of the cam 44, thecontrol cam 24 will operate to break the circuit to the motor unit andto the solenoids controlling the processing devices. The contour of camI26 may be best understood with reference to Figure 3.

The shaft 04 is caused to rotate through only one revolution by means ofa second limit switch I28, which cooperates with a startin cam I30,which is also fixedly mounted upon the shaft 06. When the apparatus isnot operating, with the platform in its lowermost position, the cam I30will be in position to close the contacts of switch I28. The contacts ofswitch I28 and the contacts of the starting switch may be connected inparallel and, therefore, after the circuit to motor unit III iscompleted through the starting switch, this circuit will also beestablished through the switch I28 as soon as the shaft 64 is rotated ashort distance. After switch I28 is closed, the starting switch may beopened, and the rotation of shaft 64 will continue until the cam I30again opens the switch I28 at the completion of one revolution of theshaft 64. However, since the starting switch has been released, thecircuit to motor unit ID will be broken until the starting switch isagain closed by the operator.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that I provideapparatus which may be employed to rapidly process many varieties ofcylindrical objects. The invention is of particular value in providing ameans of processing the surfaces of cylindrical objects while they arein a vertical position. This means that the surfaces, once processed,will not be marred by having to be rolled away from the processingoperation.

It will be understood that the foregoing description has been made onlyfor purposes of illustration. The scope of the invention is to bedetermined from the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for processing surfaces of cylindrical objects, ahorizontal plate member adapted to support a cylindrical object in anupright position, roller means arranged to engage the lower end of thecylindrical object, means to elevate the roller means above the uppersurface of the horizontal plate to raise the cylindrical object abovethe plate, a rotatable head member having its axis of rotation alignedwith the axis of rotation of the cylindrical object as positioned on theroller means, the rotatable head means being positioned a predetermineddistance above the horizontal plate whereby the cylindrical object inits elevated position will engage the head means, means to rotate thehead means about its axis to rotate the cylindrical object, andprocessing devices so positioned to be adjacent the periphery of thecylindrical object in the elevated position of the latter whereby atleast portions of the cylindrical surface may be processed as the objectis rotated.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 in which the processing devices comprisefluid spray units.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 in which the roller elevating means comprisesa rotatable cam means.

4. Apparatus as in claim 3 and further including, a motor unit adaptedto drive the rotatable cam means, a control cam mounted to rotate withthe elevating cam, and means operated by the control cam for energizingthe means to rotate the head means and to operate the processing devicesonly when the cylindrical object is in its elevated position.

5. Apparatus as in claim 4 and further including, a starting cam, andmeans operated by the starting cam and connected in parallel circuitarrangement with the means operated by the control cam means forproviding single revolutions of the elevating cam.

EUGENE J. ANDERSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 966,507 Wright Aug. 9, 19101,700,697 Droper Jan. 29, 1929 2,074,432 Rollings Mar. 23, 19372,350,569 Reynolds June 6, 1944 2,442,179 Shanklin et a1 May 25, 19482,519,177 Chenault Aug. 15, 1950

